1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to porous materials with immobilized glucose dehydrogenase. The porous materials can be used in glucose sensors for detecting blood glucose levels by utilizing the characteristics of glucose dehydrogenase.
2. Description of the Related Art
Enzymes are readily inactivated by heat, which alters proteins constituting the enzymes. Consequently, in order to stably utilize enzymes, technologies for immobilizing them on pore walls of porous materials have been developed.
Among such technologies, mesoporous materials have been actively developed because they have large specific surface areas. Therefore, the amount of the immobilized enzyme per unit area can be increased (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2000-139459 and 2002-95471).
However, pore sizes of existing mesoporous materials are small, and glucose dehydrogenase, which is large in size, cannot be immobilized on mesopore walls of these mesoporous materials.
The present invention provides a porous material with glucose dehydrogenase immobilized in its mesopores.